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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National

Meghan Markle's father Thomas asked for photo op after she tried to repair relationship with letter, friends say

Explosive interview: Thomas Markle has spoken out yet again about his daughter (Picture: PA/Reuters)

Friends of Meghan Markle have revealed the Duchess of Sussex wrote a letter to her estranged father telling him to stop victimising her so the pair could repair their relationship.

In an interview with People Magazine, friends of the royal touched on the father and daughter’s tumultuous relationship and claimed Thomas Markle has “never” made contact with Meghan.

Friends said Mr Markle “knows how to get in touch with her” and has Meghan’s number but has not tried to mend their rift.

Her friends claimed Meghan wrote to her father after the wedding to Prince Harry to ask him to stop speaking to the media but that he replied asking for a photo opportunity.

Friends said: “After the wedding she wrote him a letter. She’s like, ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father.

Thomas Markle speaking on Good Morning Britain

“Please stop victimizing me through the media so we can repair our relationship.’ Because every time her team has to come to her and fact-check something [he has said], it’s an arrow to the heart.

“He writes her a really long letter in return, and he closes it by requesting a photo op with her. And she feels like, ‘That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media, and you’re asking me to communicate through the media.

“Did you hear anything I said?’ It’s almost like they’re ships passing.”

Meghan's father did not attend the wedding last year (Getty Images)

Friends of the duchess claimed they have spoken to the magazine to "speak the truth" on their friend and "stand up against the global bullying".

The duchess and her father are understood to have been estranged for some time.

Mr Markle has previously said he faced a “wall of silence” from his daughter and has still not heard from pregnant Meghan since he did not attend her wedding and staged a series of paparazzi shoots and tell-all interviews.

He said he has made “dozens of attempts” to reach his daughter via texts and letters and even sent a handwritten note to her via his ex-wife and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

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